ABSTRACT
During the Cold War the four Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, made a name for themselves in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations. The Nordics were seen as one actor due to their close cooperation with respect to standby forces earmarked for UN peacekeeping, training, doctrine and personnel contributions. Their cooperation became known as the ‘Nordic Model’,2 and it was generally regarded as the quintessence of traditional peacekeeping.3 Its influence was evident from the popularity of the ‘Blue Book’, the Nordic Standby Forces manual, which became widely used as a basis for establishing and training UN peacekeeping contingents,4 and it was also to the Nordic Model that the British Army, the United States (US) Army and the Western European Union (WEU) turned when they began to take an interest in peace operations in the early 1990s.5
